Ordered most of the parts (I think). Found most of the major ticket items on ebay considerably cheaper than new from the recommended websites. I came in under $100 for everything I needed, which was a pleasant surprise.

I'm sure I'll have plenty of q's after I start assembling my controller and what not, but for now I had specific q's about authentication: (I intend to put an always-closed valve inside the keggerator)
-user guide does mention of iButton and RFID support...but that's it. No mention of parts in lists, what reader to get, etc. I see you can get ibuttons fairly cheap (5 for $25ish on amazon), but what kind of reader do you need to interface into the kegboard? Where to get it, etc.
-is ibutton recommended over RFID?

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Hi there!

Rosenbagel
-user guide does mention of iButton and RFID support...but that's it. No mention of parts in lists, what reader to get, etc. I see you can get ibuttons fairly cheap (5 for $25ish on amazon), but what kind of reader do you need to interface into the kegboard? Where to get it, etc.

The kegboard firmware supports reading the ibuttons:
http://kegbot.org/docs/kegboard-guide/overview.html#features

You just need a receptacle for it. That'd be this part:
http://www.embeddeddatasystems.com/DS1402D-DR8--Blue-Dot-Receptor-iButton-Reader-Cable-Serial-or-USB_p_88.html

(It is currently backordered, though.)

As to where to get iButtons, I'd stick to resellers such as the one above, or eBay (where you can occasionally find a deal on them.) You can also order all of these parts directly from Maxim, but be forewarned: their commerce system is not designed for consumers. Last time I used it, it was a hassle to log in and complete a transaction. Further more, lead times and shipping costs can be costly.

Rosenbagel
-is ibutton recommended over RFID?

It is in many respects personal preference, what you want out of your kegbot. I prefer the ibuttons for the tactile feel & the unambiguous nature of authenticating (either it is in the socket, or not). There's also the keychain-bling factor

It is also cheaper to build an iButton reader (it is built into Kegboard, as mentioned), since it just requires a spare pin. The cheapest RFID solution would still require some discrete parts, an antenna, etc. That said, Geoff has a really cool looking RFID setup. You can always change your mind, and Kegbot supports multiple authentication sources..

cheers,
mike

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Woot! Awesome info, I'm off to the races. Unf $25 min order size there, I"ll need to poke around and see what else they have that's kegbotty for $16

I like ibutton b/c I could sneakily mount the ibutton receptacle behind a cabinet to reasonably keep out the uninitiated (little ones, babysitters and relatives I don't like).

I see that receptacle has two ibutton spots? are those two discrete items? I like the idea of also using ibutton to control access to front door of fridge (I can stash 8-12 beers, tonics, etc in the front, be nice to have non-keyed access to it) I assume you could add a relay to the board to power a lock on the keggerator door? Forgive me, I'm no EE, but at least I know my way around Linux just fine and can/will offer improvements on that front in next 2 months.

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First round of parts arriving. What I didn't find on ebay (shipped out of hong kong for the most part, at very reasonable rates) I found on ibuttonlink.com ibuttons for $2.20 a pop, fobs for 80 cents to a buck. A per order charge ($5) and $11 shipping was a little high, but the ibutton reader was $8.50, and the stuff came right away.

Can't wait for the rest of the pieces to come into play. Goal is for Santa Clara Kegbot to come online before Halloween (yes I have a kid)

Did I hear correctly that solenoids are not supported in new kegbot firmware? I'd like to have an always-closed valve in there, but I thought I picked up along these forums that the feature was removed...

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Rosenbagel
I see that receptacle has two ibutton spots? are those two discrete items?

They are identical an indistinguishable. 1-wire is a "multi-drop bus", meaning you can have several things attached to the same physical bus. This makes it mostly trivial to add more things to the bus (additional receptacles/sensor, etc).

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(oops, sent too soon)

I like the idea of also using ibutton to control access to front door of fridge (I can stash 8-12 beers, tonics, etc in the front, be nice to have non-keyed access to it) I assume you could add a relay to the board to power a lock on the keggerator door?

Neat idea! Should be doable. See next.

Did I hear correctly that solenoids are not supported in new kegbot firmware? I'd like to have an always-closed valve in there, but I thought I picked up along these forums that the feature was removed...

Yes, that's right -- the feature existed early on, but was lost in some code churn. Anyway, it is near the top of my list to re-add it. I'll all add a feature to the core for control/toggling of general purpose outputs (such as your door lock), for things that aren't part of the pour logic.

I'm pretty busy with other things for the next couple of weeks, but I should have some patches and other goodies to add in early august. We can get you up and running by Halloween, no sweat!

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OK, after several weeks I have a working Ubuntu VM with Kegbot software installed. Yes that took a while, I attribute it to 95% lameness (me) and 5% iffy doc. I have a few tips on install that I will work into the wiki once I can confirm (for example, django-socialregistration does not build propertly using pip install (doesn't locate the latest version, or so it would seem, so you have to lay that down in advance etc.) However I don't fault the project for that, it's certainly well indicated that not all doc is up to snuff! But between the forum, doc, and wiki, everything was there to get me in the right direction.

To make future kegbotters have a quicker go at it, I am happy to share my virtual machine with the community. It is a little bloated (Ubuntu 10.4) but at least it works.

Next step is to flash the Arduino board and whip out the soldering iron.

Some other q's:
-Creating a keg: empty section in docs....I assume if I plow thru the python scripts I'll find something but would be nice to have some guidance
-protobuf: I think I installed this properly, but I see a note in getting started that "must edit some of the python files to add pykeg.external. to the imports from protobufrpc.synchronous" Now, I was a python newbie (tho after getting it installed, I'm much better) but would be nice to get further guidance on how to properly do this

some light feedback:
-howto/geting started refers to older (.60) versions and the paths are different than the docs. A little confusing, but I muddled thru, especially since PYTHONPATH is so important.


Lastly, my son (4) is very interested in this project. He lusts after the soldering iron, thinks the ibuttons are really cool. And, just last night, he said to me, "Daddy, when I grow up, I want to be a beer computer maker just like you". Which is significant, b/c he wanted to be an astronaut last week. Kegbots...bringing fathers and sons together in beery harmony...

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Hi Rosenbagel, Nice to hear some more people are getting a kegbot working. Hopefully I can answer some of your questions.

Some other q's:
-Creating a keg: empty section in docs....I assume if I plow thru the python scripts I'll find something but would be nice to have some guidance

Actually you add the keg details though the kegweb admin site. <kegweb url>/admin Once you get running most settings are configured there. (Add a keg, setup keg tap settings, etc)

-protobuf: I think I installed this properly, but I see a note in getting started that "must edit some of the python files to add pykeg.external. to the imports from protobufrpc.synchronous" Now, I was a python newbie (tho after getting it installed, I'm much better) but would be nice to get further guidance on how to properly do this

I don't remember having to make any changes for protobuf to work with my kegbot setup. These changes might have been a fixed in the latest code.

-howto/geting started refers to older (.60) versions and the paths are different than the docs. A little confusing, but I muddled thru, especially since PYTHONPATH is so important.

You might want to give virtualenv a try. From a beginners point of view, I found it helped simplify getting everything running.

Kegbots...bringing fathers and sons together in beery harmony...

Cheers to That!

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I had a heck of a time with protobuf and the MySQLdb python modules. Given, I was trying to get this all working under OS X 10.6. I ended up trying it on Ubuntu and getting it going in a vm in pretty short order. The documentation is pretty lacking (as is the nature of documentation), but google answered most of my questions.

Also, I guess this is kind of an introduction. A friend of mine and I just ordered up parts to convert our kegerators. I've been watching the project for a looooong time and never got around to doing anything with it until now. We'll be adding a couple of Michigan based kegbots to the list pretty soon.

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beaudoin
I had a heck of a time with protobuf and the MySQLdb python modules. Given, I was trying to get this all working under OS X 10.6.

If you have a moment, please feel free to file issues in the bug tracker (link at left). I won't mind if it is a dupe, and it helps me know what needs fixing. (I actually used to do a significant amount of kegbot work on a mac, and I should be able to get it working again if it is broken.)

beaudoin
I ended up trying it on Ubuntu and getting it going in a vm in pretty short order. The documentation is pretty lacking (as is the nature of documentation), but google answered most of my questions.

Yeah, sorry about the docs; I'll take another stab at them soon. Here, and IRC, are good places to fill in the gaps -- Geoff has become a pretty good source for getting over the hump!

I'm actively working on drastically decreasing the setup cost, because I know it is a big problem for new users (and most people don't have the perverse desire to play sysadmin in order to get a beer.. heh.)

beaudoin
Also, I guess this is kind of an introduction. A friend of mine and I just ordered up parts to convert our kegerators. I've been watching the project for a looooong time and never got around to doing anything with it until now. We'll be adding a couple of Michigan based kegbots to the list pretty soon.

Welcome back! It is good to see another kegbot-dev member back from the dead..

Edited by mike (Sept. 10, 2010 19:39:10)

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